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When I planned to volunteer in Nepal I was actually not thinking about charity. Graduating from high school and about to enter college, I felt a bit overwhelmed. A close contact with a different culture as a volunteer would definitely help me – wouldn’t it?

So I went on a 20-day trip to Nepal, volunteered in local schools and monastery, and visited all the gorgeous sightseeing places.

There are lots of Chinese in Nepal. I met a number of them. Once, as I bumped around on a Nepali bus, a 50-year-old Chinese woman, who didn’t know any English yet travelled alone in this foreign country, asked me to help her translate a brochure. I went rafting together with a group of Chinese college students who trekked and hitchhiked all the way from Tibet, crossing the Himalayas. In my volunteer group, I worked with a Chinese high school student who proclaimed that she would definitely get into Harvard next year. An aspiring Chinese journalist interviewed all the international volunteers on why they opted to spend months in such a remote country. I also met a Chinese man in his mid-30s who had quit his job to spend months teaching Chinese to Nepalese children simply because he felt “a call of duty.”

Surrounded by unknown Devanāgarī words and friendly yet exotic faces, we, who are so distant from each other in China, became very close here in Nepal. I learned new things about love and relationships from a single 30-year-old girl who told me what men at her age want to see in their future partners. So different from the high school puppy love I am familiar with!

In my high school, a famous one, test scores and the selectivity of college defines who you are. But here in Nepal, I met a graduate from a small university that I’ve never heard of, who showed me a dedication and willpower that I had rarely seen among my classmates.

My trip to Nepal showed me how my numerous years immersed in books and exams made me live in a very confined world. I realized how important it is for me to be welcoming to all values, especially those different from my own.